Social workers in England - who they are and where they work

Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 16 March, 2023

London has the most social workers per head of the population and the east of England the least.

The average age of a social worker is 46 and 82.9 per cent of the workforce are women.

Out of 100,654 social workers in England just over half – 52.1 per cent – work with children and families and 31.2 per cent work in adults social care.

These are just some of the insights in Social Work England’s State of the Nation 2023 report, the final of three reports in its first three years as regulator.

The report also shows that in 2021 to 2022 there were 1,684 applications from overseas to become a social worker - a 175.3 per cent increase.

Area of practice

A breakdown of area of practice reveals a fifth of social workers – 20.1 per cent – work in child in need and child protection.

This was followed by other workers in children and families (13.7 per cent), fostering, special guardianship and adoption, and residential (10.3 per cent), adult mental health (8.7 per cent), other workers in adult services (8.5 per cent) and adult older people (seven per cent).

Age

A breakdown of workers into age categories shows a fairly even split across groups: 60 or over (13,846), workers aged 35 to 39 (13,798), those aged 40 to 44 (13,783), 50 to 54 (13,147) and 55 to 59 (12,894). Only 1,762 are aged 24 or under.

In all, 39.6 per cent of the workforce is aged 50 or over and more than half over 45, fuelling fears of a recruitment crisis among younger workers.

Geography

The highest number of social workers in England work in London – 17,762, equal to 17.6 per cent of the total. London also has the most social workers per head of the population, with one for every 495 people. The area with the least social workers per head of the population was the east with one per 671.

The Midlands has almost as many social workers as London – 17,759. However, it has fewer per head of the population – one for every 610.

Outside London and the Midlands, the north west has the next most social workers – 14,801, equal to 14.7 per cent of the total on the register. Its social worker per head ratio is 1:5.

The south east came next with 14,094 social workers, 14 per cent of the total. It has one social worker for every 495 people. The area with the least social workers is the north east at 5,265, equal to 5.2 per cent of the total. The region has one social worker for every 503 of the population.

Ethnicity

Nearly two thirds of social workers (63.2 per cent) state their ethnicity as English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British.

One in ten stated they were African, 4.6 per cent White Other, 4.3 per cent Caribbean and 2.9 per cent Indian. People of Pakistani origin make up 1.8 per cent. Gypsy or Irish Travellers along with people of Arab heritage were the smallest ethnic group, each 0.1 per cent of the total.

Disability

Nearly one in ten - 9.5 per cent – of the workforce indicated they have a disability. Five per cent preferred not to say and 1.6 per cent opted out.

Religion

Most stated Christianity as their religion (42.7 per cent) followed closely by none (39.3 per cent). A significant proportion (7.6 per cent) preferred not to say. Islam was the next most frequently cited religion – 3.6 per cent of registered workers.

Gender and sexual orientation

More than 6,000 social workers (6.5 per cent) said their gender identity is not the same as the sex they were registered with at birth.

Most (83.6 per cent) said they were hetrosexual, 2.3 per cent identified as bisexual, 2.1 per cent as a gay woman and 1.3 per cent as a gay man. More than eight per cent preferred not to say.

Equality, diversity and inclusion in social work

The report highlights data from a previous report by the What Works for Children’s Social Care which shows:

• 28 per cent report experiencing racism from colleagues and managers
• 37 per cent experienced racism from service users and families at least once
• 10 per cent considered leaving their organisation because of racist experiences
• Eight per cent considered leaving the profession because of racism

Concerns raised about social workers

There were 1,734 concerns about social workers raised in 2021 to 2022. This was down from 2,328 in 2020 to 2021.

Most concerns raised in the last year came from a member of the public (809). The next most common source was employer (317) followed by self-referrals (143).

Most of the concerns were due to poor or inappropriate communication (22.6 per cent), followed by dishonesty (17.2 per cent), safeguarding concerns (12.5 per cent), performance issues (7.5 per cent) and professional boundaries (6.7 per cent).

Of cases that were handled by a Social Work England case examiner last year, 45.7 per cent were referred to a hearing, 37 per cent were closed and 17.4 per cent were resolved through accepted disposal. There were 1,079 hearings and meetings in 2021-22, an increase of 245 on the previous year.